Flesh from Heaven: The Text of John 6.52 and its Intertext.

Most modern commentaries and translations of the Gospel of John take John 6.52 to read: 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' There is, however, an important variant reading here that lacks the αὐτοῦ (thus: 'How can this man give us flesh to eat?'), which has received very little attention. This article contends that the shorter reading creates yet another example of Johannine dramatic irony, as the contempt of οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι for Jesus' teaching echoes the unbelief of the wilderness generation who were 'given flesh to eat' along with the manna. The article tentatively concludes that this intertextual reading advances the 'internal probability' of the shorter text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]